After years of reconstruction, the long-awaited reopening of the St. Jude Hospital is now within reach, following a comprehensive safety inspection by the Saint Lucia Fire Service.
The facility has been declared fully compliant with modern fire safety standards, marking one of the final steps before management receives its official certificate of operation.
Assistant Divisional Officer with responsibility for Fire Prevention, Owen Cazaubon, confirmed that the inspection team conducted rigorous tests on both active and passive fire protection systems.
“We’ve tested and checked our passive and active fire protection systems; mainly our fire alarm system, our smoke dampers, our fire extinguishers. We inspected those. We inspected the emergency lighting systems. You know that in case you have a power shortage, we need lighting so persons can move around at least for 90 minutes,” Cazaubon explained.
He added that new safety installations significantly enhance the hospital’s preparedness compared to before the 2009 fire.
“We also checked our wet riser system, and those features did not exist at St. Jude’s before the previous fire. So as a fire department, we try to ensure that we create a standard of safety to ensure that in case we have a situation at St. Jude’s, the public or the occupants of St. Jude’s would be safe and that we can quell or mitigate that risk as soon as possible.”
Chief Fire Officer Ditney Downes expressed confidence in both the hospital’s fire safety infrastructure and the fire department’s readiness to respond.
“We also took the opportunity to test our new appliance, the capabilities of our new appliance on the hospital, our monitor, our various specialized equipment. So we are confident that if there is an issue at the hospital, the fire department will be able to respond effectively,” he said.
Downes confirmed that the hospital passed its final inspection without issue.
“All the systems are working as we expected from a firefighting perspective. The various issues that we highlighted in our last inspection have been addressed, and the areas that we concentrated on in the hospital, I could confidently say, have succeeded in our fire inspection. So a certificate of operation from a firefighting perspective will be issued to the management of St. Jude’s Hospital, and they could now operate.”
Cazaubon emphasized the importance of maintaining the facility’s high safety standards over time.
“What is required though is for the systems that are in place right now to be maintained throughout the life of the facility. We want to ensure that the staff of St. Jude’s are trained in case there is a situation, that they are the first responders. They know what to do, how to use the equipment, and how to alert the fire service,” he stated.
The Saint Lucia Fire Service’s endorsement represents a pivotal milestone in the hospital’s return to full operation, offering renewed hope for enhanced healthcare delivery and public confidence in one of the nation’s most vital medical institutions.